Development of new tools for kinomics

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This short term project aims to explore the viability of azidophosphate-based systems as tools for unravelling kinase-based signalling systems. Signals in biological systems are communicated via a process known as phosphorylation. In this process enzymes known as kinases pass on signals by transferring a small chemical entity (the phosphate group) from a molecule known as ATP to a signalling protein (kinase substrate). Once a protein has been phosphorylated, and only when it has been phosphorylated, it can bind to another receptor protein (phospho-protein recptor) and thus pass on the signal. Chemical and genetic methods have been developed for the identification kinase substrates, however the identification of phosphoprotein receptors is more challenging. Genetic methods have been devised, but these are complicated. Chemical methods are currently not available and we aim to fill this technology gap. All biological systems contained phosphorylation-mediated signalling pathways thus this new technology has a very broad potential user base which ranges from biomedical researches to basic science researchers.